Bennet A. Brown

[NatHlpLine]

Subj: Banking's Bennett A. Brown Dead at 68
Date: 97-08-02 13:05:30 EDT
From: AOL News

ATLANTA, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Bennett A. Brown, one
of the early architects of regional interstate banking in
the Southeastern United States,died at 9:15 a.m. today
after a lengthy illness. He was 68.
A native of Kingstree, S.C., Brown had made his home in
Atlanta and Pawley's Island, S.C., since retiring as
chairman of NationsBank Corporation in 1992.
Brown is probably best remembered professionally
for leading Georgia's largest bank, Atlanta-based Citizens
and Southern National Bank (C&S), out of a highly
publicized financial crisis in the late 1970s and into
prominence as one of the region's leading financial
institutions.
An elder at Atlanta's Peachtree Presbyterian
Church, he is also remembered for his active professional
and community service throughout his career.
He was a past president of The Bankers
Roundtable, an active member and a director of the
International Monetary Conference and a former president of
the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
He received the Salvation Army's national William
Booth Award in 1986 for his fund raising leadership, and
just recently he and his wife, Mary Alice Brown, received
the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest honor.
"He was a man of action who understood how a
strong, healthy bank could shape and build a community,"
said NationsBank Chief Executive Officer Hugh McColl, a
fellow South Carolinian and a longtime friend of Brown's.
"He knew how to make a difference. He was a
shrewd leader, a tough competitor and a good friend -- a
man you like to have on your side and in your community."
Under Brown's leadership in the 1980s, C&S
recovered from a financial crisis, regained strength and
began expanding across Georgia.
In the mid-1980s, Brown steered C&S into Florida
with the acquisition of the Landmark Banks and then into
South Carolina in a merger with the once-related C&S Banks
of that state. Later, in the largest merger in U.S.
banking history at the time, C&S merged with the Norfolk,
Va.-based Sovran banks, creating C&S/Sovran Corporation.
NationsBank, now the fourth largest bank in the
nation, was created at year-end 1991 when C&S/Sovran merged
with NCNB Corporation of Charlotte.
Brown was a gregarious man who inspired loyalty,
and he used a keen sense of humor to liven the pace of his
officer meetings. He often ate breakfast and lunch in the
employee cafeteria, and he enjoyed greeting his associates
in the corridors.
"He was the CEO of a huge organization but he
never lost sight of the people who provide the capacity for
any large enterprise to function well. He really cared
about them and for them," said Dr. Frank Harrington, his
pastor and longtime friend. "He had a sense of gratitude
for how God had blessed him and placed him where he could
be a blessing. That's what people will remember the most."
"Bennett had a strong sense of what's right and
wrong, and he had strong feelings for people," said retired
C&S Vice Chairman John McIntyre, who worked with Brown for
40 years at C&S. "He was a great cheerleader. He could
pep you up."
Henry Collinsworth, another longtime friend and a
retired C&S executive, cited the Salvation Army capital
campaign in Atlanta in the mid-1980s.
"He not only raised more money than they'd ever
raised before -- he also sold the city on just how good the
Salvation Army is," said Collinsworth. "He had a
charismatic personality that made you want to do more and
do better than you'd previously thought possible. That's
great leadership."
Robert Forrestal, former president of the Federal
Reserve Bank in Atlanta and a friend and neighbor of the
Browns, described Brown as "just a natural individual, no
errors in graces, very practical and very far-sighted."
Brown and McColl, then chairman and CEO at NCNB
Corporation, were two of the most aggressive bank leaders
to fight for state and federal legislation clearing the way
for regional interstate banking in the early 1980s.
Former Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders, remembering
Brown's role in the legislative battle in Georgia, said
that "through his leadership, we were able to do away with
years and years of frustration. It was the toughest
legislation that had ever passed."
Brown was a tremendous competitor, said Larry
Gellerstedt, who retired recently from the NationsBank
board and served many years as a C&S director.
But in the civic arena, "he know how to work for the good
of the city. The way he and Bob Strickland (the late CEO
of SunTrust banks) worked together is one of the beautiful
examples of teamwork in Atlanta's history."
Brown, a graduate of Presbyterian college in
South Carolina, had worked briefly at Chemical Bank in New
York after service in the U.S. Army. Then he took a job at
the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, where he learned of the C&S
Bank, then under the leadership of the legendary Mills B.
Lane. Brown joined C&S as a management trainee in 1955.
His career advanced steadily. In the 1960s, Lane
sent him to lead the C&S Bank in Augusta, Ga. for six
years, then brought him back to Atlanta as assistant
president of The C&S National Bank.
Brown was named president of the C&S parent
company at a precarious time in 1978. Sky-rocketing
interest rates combined with a real estate recession
had raised the threat of bank failure. Federal regulators
had descended on the bank, forced the resignation of the
top executive and imposed strict controls.
Brown was first named interim president, then
earned the unanimous endorsement of the board as president,
and later as CEO and chairman, as well.
It was an extraordinarily difficult time, but also
exhilarating.
"The adrenaline was flowing," recalled Willie
Alexander, the C&S veteran Brown tapped as chief credit
officer. "It was teamwork at its best. It was the
greatest time of the bank."
"The troubles were of such magnitude you could
hardly describe it,"Gellerstedt said, recalling the board's
decision to name Brown president after a long search had
focused on candidates outside C&S. "It was so impressive
to see how the management team and the people in the bank
rallied behind Bennett.There was an air of euphoria."
Ben J. Tarbutton, a longtime C&S director at the
time, commented, "Brown provided the kind of leadership we
needed. The team he put into play, the control and
professionalism -- Brown provided those."
"What he did for C&S was miraculous," said
Georgia Banking Commissioner Jack Dunn. "When he became
president, they (employees) gave him a standing ovation
because they knew him and they knew they could trust him."
Brown, who was diagnosed with lung cancer a year
ago, made the most of his last year, concentrating on
spending time with his family and friends. And he remained
active to the end.
"On June 15, Father's Day, he gave a wild game
supper at his South Carolina home and more than 225 people
attended," said McIntyre. "A week later, he took six
friends with him for a final deep-sea fishing trip, 60
miles out to the Gulf stream."
On July 11, Brown attended a reception at Emory
Medical Center, where he gave $100,000 to cancer research.
He and his wife also donated a collection of some
70 paintings depicting life in the low country of South
Carolina to the Emory Clinic Hematology/Oncology Ambulatory
Infusion Center.
Brown is survived by his wife, the former Mary
Alice Rustin of Columbia, S.C.; three daughters, Charlotte
Brown Dixon of Atlanta, Leila Brown Armknecht of Salt Lake
City, Utah, and Katherine Brown Ohlhausen of Atlanta; a
son,Bennett Alexander Brown III of Temple, Ga.; and six
grandchildren.
Two funeral services are scheduled: at 11 a.m. on
Monday, Aug. 4 at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta,
with the Rev. W. Frank Harrington officiating; and at 11
a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 5 at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church
in Kingstree, S.C., with Rev. Harrington and the Rev.
Samuel Shumate officiating.
Interment will be in the family cemetery at Union
Presbyterian Church in Salters, S.C., with Rev. Harrington
and the Rev. Ted Martin presiding.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests
contributions to one of two organizations: Brookgreen
Gardens, Murrells Inlet, S.C., 29576, for the Mary Alice
and Bennett A. Brown Sculpture Court, a project to renovate
the first museum gallery built exclusively for the
exhibition of American sculpture and equip it for the
continuing display of works from the Brookgreen Gardens
sculpture collection; or The Michael Fanucchi Lung Cancer
Research Fund at Emory University, The Emory Clinic, 1365
Clifton Road N.E., Suite 1500,Atlanta, Ga. 30322.